Lymington Sunday Early Point Series Race 3

by Barry Sticklen on 13 Mar 2012 Seventeen boats signed on for the third race of the Sunday Early point’s series, six in the fast fleet and eleven in the medium fleet. There were again no takers in the slow fleet.

This week saw all three of the ‘new to LTSC’, D-One dinghies on the start line.

The Race Officer this week was Richard Lilley, the weather was reasonably good when the fog cleared, with wall to wall sunshine. The wind was not playing though. At the scheduled start time there was fog and only five knots of breeze coming from the South. A postponement was in order. After a 50 minute odd delay the wind had moved round a bit to the South South West and increased to eight knots. A mark was laid in Oxey Mouth and as they were almost at the end of the flood there would not be too much tide to bother them.

The fast fleet finally got away at 1118hrs with all of them going out of the river to the laid mark. The International 14 of Peter Conway and Ginny Harvey lead the way crossing the finish line first. Twelve seconds later Nigel Walbank in his Musto Skiff and Giles Chipperfield, in one of the D-One’s, crossed the finish line and were both credited with the same finish time. Nick Simmons and Dave Gorringe crossed next in the remaining two D-One’s. After the computer had done its work though, the D-Ones would take first, second and third places, a clean sweep on handicap.

The medium fleet got away at 1130hrs with a 50 / 50 split, some of them going out of the river and some gambling on the inshore route through the lakes. Round the outside proved best. Ian Sanderson in his Blaze took the line honours followed by Stewart Watson in another Blaze second. Third was Richard Russell in the RS 100 (the last one left, with Giles and David having defected to the D-One’s) Eric Sey in his RS Vareo came in next. Ian Sanderson would keep the handicap win with Stuart Watson second but Adrian Baker in his Streaker would steal third from Richard Russell.

The racing was close with many battles for line honours from first to last.

Race 3 Results

Fast Fleet
1st Giles Chipperfield D-One
2nd Nick Simmons D-One
3rd David Gorringe D-One

Medium Fleet
1st Ian Sanderson Blaze
2nd Stewart Watson Blaze
3rd Adrian Baker Streaker

Series Results after three races

Fast Fleet
1st Giles Chipperfield D-One 4.0 pts
2nd Tig Williams RS 600 5.0 pts
3rd Ben and Tom Oliver 29er 9.0 pts

Medium Fleet
1st Ian Sanderson Blaze 2.0 pts
2nd Adrian Baker Streaker 4.0 pts
3rd Richard Russell RS 100 5.0 pts

Lyminton Town Sailing Club website